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Bellator MMA will come to Newcastle on February 9 for the first of its projected 10-event European season with the card headlined at the Metro Radio Arena, headlined by Patricky 'Pitbull' Friere against former BAMMA champion Ryan Scope in a lightweight bout.

Popular reality tv star turned mixed martial artist Aaron Chalmers, a local to Newcastle, will fight as the co-main event, his opponent expected to be announced in the next week, along with further events to the schedule expected by the end of the year.

"I'm delighted to be fighting in my home town and I'm looking to have three or four fights in 2019," Chalmers told The Telegraph. "I'll have been out for nine months when I fight and so it will be great to get back in there. It started out as just wanting one fight, but I'm now truly living the life of a fighter and under Tom Breese and others at UTC, I'm really progressing."

Chalmers told me that he also aimed to fight in the USA in 2019.

Bellator hosted five events in Europe in 2018, having set up a new London office, under David Green, to double its efforts on the continental territory in the coming year. "We are investing heavily as we believe there is a huge market in Europe," said Bellator CEO Scott Coker.

A television deal is expected to be announced by Christmas.

Elsewhere, the long-awaited all-British welterweight clash between Paul Daley and Michael 'Venom' Page, in the first round of the Bellator welterweight tournament, will also take place in February - though it will be in the USA - a week after Newcastle.

The long-discussed and long-awaited welterweight showdown between increasingly fierce rivals Michael Page and Paul Daley appears to have finally come to fruition.

Page announced the news on his Instagram account, and although it will be a disappointment to British fans that it is not in the UK, it is understood that streaming service DAZN, which owns broadcast rights to the series, had insisted it be on USA soil.

DAZN does not have broadcast rights in the UK.

Bellator executives told me that Page versus Daley will be made available to UK fans, live.

The winner will face former champion Douglas Lima in the first semi-final, with the Brazilian already is on record saying he hopes “Venom” Page wins the fight.

“I'd like to fight ‘MVP’ just because I haven’t fought him before,” Lima told me. "But either one could win that fight."

More fights on the card are expected in the coming day, with tickets on sale for 'Bellator Newcastle' on Dec 12.